
HassJL^ 



i!i«it -VC A4 i^ 



UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA PUBLICATIONS 

IN 

AMERICAN ARCHAEOLOGY AND ETHNOLOGY 

Vol. 8, No. 2, pp. 29-68, Pis. 1-15 June 20, 1908 



ETHNOGRAPHY OF THE CAHUILLA 
INDIANS 



A. L. KROEBER 



BERKELEY 

THE UNIVERSITY PRESS 






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UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA PUBLICATIONS 

IN 
AMERICAN ARCHAEOLOGY AND ETHNOLOGY 

Vol. 8, No. 2, pp. 29-68 June 20, 1908 



ETHNOGRAPHY OF THE CAHUILLA 
INDIANS 



BT 

A. L. KEOEBEH. 



CONTENTS. 

PAGE 

Geography .'... _ 29 

Culture ,. 39 

Basketry 41 

Stone Implements : _ 51 

Pottery 54 

Implements of Wood and Fibre 57 

Ceremonial Objects and Beads , 61 

Houses 63 

Social and Eeligious Life 65 

GEOGRAPHY. 

The following notes are based on a trip to the Indian reser- 
vations in the vicinity of Highland, Banning, and Indio in 
Southern California. The specimens described and illustrated 
were secured, through the generosity of Mrs. Phoebe A. Hearst, 
for the Museum of the Department of Anthropology of the Uni- 
versity of California. The reservations visited are inhabited by 
Shoshonean Indians, mainly speaking the Serrano and Cahuilla 
dialects. Indians speaking Chemehuevi, Gabrielino, and Agua 
Caliente were also found. The three groups of reservations, 
while within a stretch of less than a hundred miles, are in totally 



30 University of California Publications in Am. Arch, and Ethn. [Vol. 8 

different natural environments. Highland is in the cultivated 
and thickly populated orange-growing district of Southern Cali- 
fornia. Banning is near the summit of the pass connecting this 
region with the desert to the east. ludio is in the heart of this 
desert, below the level of the sea. 

Highland is at the northern edge of the fruitful San Ber- 
nardino valley, and the small San Manuel Indian reservation 
near by is situated on the first foothills overlooking the valley. 
The character of this region is too well known to need descrip- 
tion. It is only necessary to call attention to the difference be- 
tween the level lands of the San Bernardino valley, which form 
part of the great highly cultivated plain of Southern California, 
and the Sierra Madre or San Bernardino range, rising abruptly 
to a height of ten thousand feet above this plain. While the 
higher portions of this range are timbered, the lower parts, es- 
pecially the foothills, preserve the barren, brush-covei'ed appear- 
ance which they have always had, and of which the valley must 
in some measure have partaken before its irrigation. 

Banning is in the San Gorgonio pass, which affords the lowest 
natural entrance into the fruitful portion of either Southern or 
Northern California. This pass is in many ways remarkable, 
rising to only 2500 feet as compared with the 4500 over Tehachapi 
and the 5000 and more in the various Sierra passes. It is di- 
rectly between the two highest peaks in Southern California, Mt. 
San Gorgonio, 11,400 feet high and little more than 12 miles 
away from Banning on the north, and Mt. San Jacinto, 10,600 
feet in altitude, only 14 miles distant from Banning to the south- 
east. The pass is not, however, as might be expected, a wild 
gorge or canyon cut between these peaks, but a wide gradual 
slope with scarcely any water courses. At Banning, which is 
about six miles east of the summit at Beaumont and some 200 
feet lower, the pass is several miles wide, flat, and with a percep- 
tible but gentle slope to the east, which the railroad is able to 
climb without detour or approaches. While the streams from the 
San Bernardino range quickly lose themselves in the boulders 
and sand of the pass, the lower parts of these mountains are 
sufficiently watered and wooded to make them a favorable Indian 
habitation. The climate is cooler than in the San Bernardino 



O'lft 

.'9 '08 



1908] Eroeber. — Ethnography of the Cahuilla .Indians. 31 

valley or in the desert, but all fruits hardier than oranges, and in 
some cases even these, are successfully growTi. The Indian reser- 
vation is a few miles to the northeast of Banning. Its inhabited 
portion is at the edge of the foothills, though the reservation 
extends some distance back into the mountains. 

From Banning eastward the character of the country changes 
rapidly. The pas.s gradually widens out into a broad plain, the 
Cabezon valley, which has much the surface character of a wide 
wash. The streams from the mountain disappear with almost 
miraculous rapidity in the stretches of boulders, gravel, or sand 
that constitute the soil. The vegetation is very scanty, the tree 
yucca being by far the most conspicuous plant. A strong wind 
is generally blowing from the west and is made particularly 
noticeable by the sand which the lack of vegetation enables it to 
carry. Some twenty miles east of Banning is Palm Springs sta- 
tion, some miles to the south of which are Palm Springs and the 
Agua Caliente Indian reservation. Palm Springs is at the very 
foot of Mt. San Jacinto on its eastern side. Some miles to the 
south is the famous Palm canyon, noted for the number and size 
of its native palms. This was the territory of a division of the 
Cahuilla Indians, some of whom still live at Palm Springs. 

Some twenty or twenty-five miles farther on is Indio. Here 
one is below the level of the sea, in the supposed heart of the 
desert not far from the famous Salton sink. The rainfall is al- 
most nil, many years passing without perceptible precipitation, 
and the heat of summer is intense, equalling that of the arid 
regions of southern Arizona and Sonora. But this region is 
really less desert than the district about Palm Springs station. 
The vegetation is much heavier and of a different character. 
The tree yucca is replaced by the mesqnite, which will grow only 
where its roots can pierce to water. Throughout the entire low- 
lying region which constitutes the center of the Colorado desert 
water can be obtained at comparatively slight depths, so slight 
in fact that it was reached by the wells dug by the Cahuillas in 
aboriginal times. At present the greater part of this desert 
is becoming converted into valuable agricultural land through 
the sinking of artesian wells and pumps. The soil is not gravelly 
or made of the loose detritus from the neighboring mountains, 



32 University of California Publications in Am. Arch, and Ethn. [Vol. 8 

but the deposit of an old lake formerly connected with the Colo- 
rado river or the Gulf of California. Certain stretches contain 
much alkali, but others are exceedingly favorable for cultiva- 
tion. Sand is found only here and there, most of the surface 
soil being a silt, in some places thickly covered with small shells. 
The two long ranges of mountains flanking this valley, the San 
Bernardino range on the northeast and the San Jacinto mountains 
on the southwest, however, bear an absolutely desert appearance. 
They are rocky and from a distance show no signs of vegetation 
except in their higher western portions. 

As will be seen, the interesting difference in the environment 
of these three localities is reflected in the native cultures found 
there. It accords also with the distribution of tribes or dialectic 
groups. San Bernardino valley and the San Bernardino moun- 
tains were held by the Serrano. In the pass at the edge of the 
mountains, and at Palm Springs, lived one division of the Ca- 
huilla. In the low-lying streamless region between Indio and 
Salton were another branch of the Cahuilla. 

In a previous publication dealing with the geography of the 
Shoshoneans of California the territorial relations of the Serrano 
and Cahuilla in their region of contact have been discussed.^ 
The published evidence on this point is conflicting, several auth- 
ors having included San Bernardino valley in the former habitat 
of the Cahuilla. The conclusion was however arrived at that this 
valley was held by the Serrano, and that the westernmost limit 
of Cahuilla territory was somewhere in the San Gorgonio pass. 
The San Bernardino mountains appeared to be Serrano, the San 
Jacinto mountains Cahuilla. Information secured in the course 
of the present trip substantiates these conclusions. 

The home par excellence of the Serrano was the San Ber- 
nardino range and the desert tableland extending between this 
and the Tehachapi range to the north. It is therefore easy to 
see how their name, which signifies "mountaineers," came to be 
applied to them. The only region in which they are known to 
have held any fruitful low-lying plain was in the San Bernardino 
valley. Redlands, San Bernardino, and Colton were all in Ser- 
rano territory. Riverside and Junipa were near the meeting 

1 Shoshonean Dialects of California, present series, IV, 132, 1907. 



1908] Kroeber. — Ethnography of the Cahuilla Indians. 33 

point of Serrano, Gabrielino, and Luiseno. A Serrano informant 
made these places Luiseno, but claimed for his people all the 
territory north of the Jurupa mountains. Yueaipa he regarded 
as Serrano, but gave San Timoteo to the Cahuilla. As Yueaipa 
valley drains into the lower part of San Timoteo canyon, the 
boundary between the Serrano and Cahuilla must be sought 
somewhere in the course of this western approach to the wider 
San Gorgonio pass. 

No information could be obtained regarding the Serrano ex- 
tension westward in the plain, but there seems no reason to alter 
the conclusion previously arrived at that it was somewhere in 
the neighborhood of Cucamonga or the line between Los Angeles 
and San Bernardino counties. The topographically natural line 
of division would follow the hills, just west of Pomona, forming 
a northward extension of the Santa Ana mountains. On the 
other hand it must always be regarded as doubtful, in the absence 
of definite information, whether a people otherwise showing so 
strong a prefei-ence for a mountain habitat would have been 
likely to hold the large stretch of plain between Colton, Pomona, 
the Santa Ana river, and the San Gabriel mountains. 

The eastward extension of the Serrano is less doubtfxil, at 
least for some distance. San Gorgonio pass about Banning was 
Cahuilla territory. This included the lower part of Morongo 
reservation, called Potrero in Spanish and Malki in Cahuilla. 
But immediately east. Mission creek, flowing southeastward into 
the desert from San Gorgonio peak, was held by the Serrano, 
who call it Marina or Maronga. East of Mission creek are Mor- 
ongo creek and Morongo valley, the names of which are evidence 
of occupancy by the same people. Morongo, or some form of the 
name, is the term by which the Serrano of this region are known 
to several Indian tribes. The Serrano also lived still fai-ther 
east, at Twenty-nine Palms, some distance north of the main 
crest of the San Bernardino range. This place, which they called 
Mara, is near the one hundred and sixteenth meridian, in the 
Mohave desert, nearly half way between Indio on the Southern 
Pacific railroad and Bagdad on the Santa Fe. One of the orig- 
inal inhabitants of this place is still said to live there, but the 
remainder of the few Indians now on the small reservation there 



34 University of California Publications in Am. Arch, and Ethn. [Vol. 8 



are Chemehuevi. As to the desert country still farther east, in 
which the territory of the Serrano comes to an end and that of 
the Chemehuevi begins, no information could be obtained. The 
languages of Highland and of Mis.sion creek and Morongo valley 
were found to be identical. The dialect of Twenty-nine Palms 
is said to have been identical with that of Morongo, and that of 
Highland with the language spoken about Bear valley in the 
mountains to the north. It therefore appears that all the Ser- 
rano of the San Bernardino mountains spoke only one dialect, 
which diifered somewhat from that of the Serrano of the Mohave 
desert and the Tehachapi mountains. 

Serrano names of places are: 



Wachavak 
Tukaipat 
A' 'hangk 
Hunguvat 



Hikavanii 't- 

Mu'kat 

Kukamonat 

Wahinut 

Kwiria-kaich' 

Kayakhpiat 

Achavat 

Atanpat 

Padjiidjiit 



Nanamiivyat 

Kotainat* 
Mara 



San Bernardino. 

Yucaipa, east of Redlands. 

a small hill west of Colton. 

hills southeast of Colton, across the river, 

probably Box Springs mountains and the 

hills farther north, 
a large hill west of Colton, probably Jurupa 

mountain, 
mountains south or southwest of Colton, 

probably the Sierra Santa Ana. 
Cucamonga. 
Cajon canyon. 
San Gorgonio mountain. 
Bear lake. 

a lake to the north of the last, 
a sierra to the north, 
(warm water), the stream flowing north 

from Little Bear valley, the upper Mo- 
have river. 
six large stones, "goddesses," in or near 

Little Bear valley. 
Santa Ana river near Highland. 
Twenty-nine Palms. 



- Or Yikavanii 't. 
3 Qaitc, mountain. 
* Qotainat. 



1908] Kroeber. — Ethnography of the CahuiUa Indians. 35 

Maronga" Morongo valley or Mission Creek. 

The above, except Mu''kat, are all in Serrano territory. 

Savova San Jacinto reservation. 

Luvus place or ti'ibe south, in vicinity of Cahuilla 

reservation. This does not have the 
appearance of a Serrano word. 

Aya-kaich' San Jacinto mountain. 

Akavat" San Timoteo and Banning, the country of 

the Wanupiapayum Cahuilla. 

Kawishmu a small hill east of White Water, marking 

the boundary between the Wanupiapay- 
um and the desert Cahuilla. 

The "Paiuches" and Chemehuevi are called Yoaka-yam, from 
yoaka, perhaps the term for a high mountain or range. This 
word was applied by a Vanyume or "Mohineyam" Serrano of 
Mohave river to the Chemehuevi.^ It appears to be the Serrano 
term for the Ute-Chemehuevi in general. The desert Cahuilla 
are Kitanemun-um, those of San Gorgonio pass Wanupiapay-um. 
The former word resembles Gitanemuk, the name of the Serrano 
of Tejon. For themselves, the Serrano perhaps had no name. 
Kaiviat-am was obtained. This is a derivative from kai-ch 
(qaitc), mountain. It is not certain whether it is an old term 
denotive of the tribal and linguistic group or a translation of 
Spanish ' ' Serrano. ' ' 

As regards the Cahuilla, the tribal affiliations of the Colorado 
desert people have always been undoubted, whereas Gorgonio 
pass has been disputed territory. It has been stated that the 
Indians of Morongo reservation near Banning were mixed Ser- 
ranos and Cahuillas. This is literally true. Nevertheless the 
number of true Serrano on this reservation is small. The In- 
dians are predominatingly Cahuilla, and both tribes state that 
the pass in the vicinity of the reservation was always Cahuilla 
territory. These Banning Cahuilla however answer indiscrim- 
inately to the name of Serrano or Cahuilla, and seem to apply 



5 ' ' The largest village ' ' according to the Highland informant. 

» Aqavat. The frequent -at of these names is perhaps a locative suflix. 

' Present series, II, 140. 



36 University of California PuWcations in Am. Arch, and Ethn. [Vol. 8 

either name to themselves. Why they should be known as Ser- 
rano as well as Cahuilla is not quite clear. A Serrano informant 
questioned at Banning claimed the name Serrano as proper only 
to her own people. When they moved from Mission creek and 
Morongo valley to live on the reservation, they brought the name 
with them, which then came to be applied to the Cahuilla there. 
This explanation can of course not be accepted unqualifiedly. 
As compared with the Cahuilla of the desert, the Banning Ca- 
huilla lived at a miich greater altitude and at the foot of the 
mountains, so that they were literally "Serranos. " It is only 
natural that the distinction between the general meaning of the 
word, and its exact signification as applied to a tribal or linguis- 
tic group, should not always have been observed by Spanish and 
English-speaking people. Moreover the confusion may have 
been aided by the distinction existing in the Indians' mind be- 
tween the Cahuilla of the Colorado desert and those of San Gor- 
gonio pass. As stated, the Serrano call the former Kitanemun- 
um and the latter Wanupiapay-um. Among the Cahuilla them- 
selves corresponding names were not obtained, but it is obvious 
from their reference to one another that the distinction between 
the two groups exists. Besides the difference in mode of life 
enforced in former times by environment, there remains today a 
difference in dialect. 

The Cahuilla of Palm Springs or Agua Caliente form part 
of the San Gorgonio pass group. San Jacinto mountain is said 
to have belonged to these Indians. Palm Springs is less than 
eight miles in a direct line from the summit of this peak. 

Nothing new was ascertained as to the territory of the desert 
Cahuilla. They live in a number of reservations in the flat val- 
ley, near its center or towards its western side. These sites ap- 
pear to have been among their principal habitations in aboriginal 
times. It is doubtful whether they claimed definite limits to 
the more barren outlying portions of their territory. To the 
north there seems every reason for assuming that the limit, if 
any existed, was the crest of the San Bernardino range, which is 
here of no great altitude. To the southeast they extended at 
least to the northern end of the Salton sink. Near the southern 
end of this ancient lake there were formerly Yuman villages. 



1908] Kroebcr. — Ethnography of the Cahidlla Indians. 37 

The Cahuilla living in the mountains to the west of their 
brethren in the desert, were situated in a third environment, dif- 
ferent both from that of the San Gorgonio pass and of the desert. 
They are principally on Cahuilla reservation in the drainage of 
the 'Santa Margarita river, and at Santa Rosa and San Ignacio 
in the lost drainage of Coyote valley. This habitat is on the 
more favored side of the San Jacinto range. The desert Indians 
state that the dialect of the mountain Cahuilla is identical with 
their own.'^ 

Twenty-nine Palms in the Mohave desert north of Indio, for- 
merly in Serrano territory, is now held chiefly by Chemehuevi. 
Within the past few j'ears several families of these Chemehuevi 
have removed from Twenty-nine Palms on account of the diffi- 
culty of finding subsistence there, and are now on the Cahuilla 
reservation of Cabezon, near Coachella, three miles southeast of 
Indio. The Cahuilla cannot communicate with th'em except in 
English or Spanish, though the two languages belong to the same 
family. The Cahuilla state that these Indians did not formerly 
live at Twenty-nine Palms, but to the east near the Mohave, and 
that when they fought that tribe many years ago, they were de- 
feated and fled to this place. This statement corresponds with a 
quotation made by Dr. Barrows from an Indian Office report, 
according to which a number of Chemehuevi had in 1867 fled 
from their enemies, the Mohave, across the desert into Cahuilla 
territory. Mohave accounts also tell of their war about this time 
with the tribe with which they had previously maintained friend- 
ly relations. For the sake of corroboration the few Chemehuevi 
at Cabezon were cpiestioned as to their places of birth. All the 
younger people to about the age of forty were born in Twenty- 
nine Palms, while all the old people are from the vicinity of 
what they call the Mohave river, that is the Colorado, the river 
of the Mohaves. One elderly man was born near Pahrump, in 
southern Nevada. Their dialect was found to be the same as 
that of the Chemehuevi questioned some yeare ago. 

The presence of these Chemehuevi at Twenty-nine Palms and 



7a Cahuilla Indians from Cahuilla reservation, seen at the Indian confer- 
ence in Kiverside, April, 1908, stated that there were slight differences 
between their speech and that of the desert Cahuilla, 



38 University of California Publications in Am. Arch, and Ethn. [Vol.8 

Cabezon is interesting because it adds another distinct tribe and 
language to the many included under the jurisdiction of the 
Mission-Tule agency. Besides a few Chumash surviving near 
Santa Ynez in Santa Barbara county, and the Yokuts at Tule 
river, among whom three dialects are spoken and among whom 
a number of Tiibatulabal or Kern river Shoshoneans are inter- 
married, there are the following groups known as Mission In- 
dians: of the Yuman family, the Diegueiio, speaking probably 
two closely similar dialects; of the Shoshonean family, the Ser- 
rano at San Manuel and Banning; a few surviving Gabrielino 
at the former and perhaps other reservations ; the Cahuilla that 
have been enumerated, speaking two slightly different dialects 
and living in three quite distinct districts; the Luiseno, whose 
language is also slightly varied between San Luis Key and San 
Jacinto rivers; the Agua Caliente or Warner's Ranch Indians; 
the San Juan Capistrano Indians, of whom a few survive; and 
finally the Chemehuevi just mentioned. These Shoshoneans be- 
long to five of the eight principal divisions into which the entire 
sub-family is divisible. The total number of linguistic families 
under the Mission-Tule agency is thus four, of languages eight, 
and of dialects fifteen or more. 

Among the San Manuel Serrano was found Jose Sevaldeo, the 
same informant who had been questioned some years previously, 
though his name was then understood to be Varoxo. He is now 
a very old man of perhaps ninety years, who was grown up but 
not yet married at the time that "the stars fell from the sky" 
in 1833, and whose skin is turning white. Owing to his extreme 
age and feebleness exact information could no longer be obtained 
from him. He gave the Indian names of a number of localities. 
As to some of these there seems no reasonable doubt. As regards 
others, the form of the name is in some cases Gabrielino, in oth- 
ers Serrano or possibly Luiseiio; and in certain cases the locali- 
ties to which the names are said to refer appear to be incorrectly 
given. 

Pimu Santa Catalina island. 

Kingki (evidently San Clemente island.) 

Chauvi in vicinity of San Pedro (Reid, Chowi-gna, 

Palos Verdes). 



1908] 



Eroeber. — Ethnography of the Cahnilla Indians. 



39 



Ungovi-pit 

Wenot 
Wach-bit 
Yukaipa 
Ashukslia-vit 

Shua-vit 



Akura-nea 



Apachia-ng 

Kukamo-nga 

Pashina-nga 

Khurupa 

Toibi 

Sovovo 



Salinas, i.e., Redondo, previously given as 

Ongoving.* 
Los Angeles." 
San Bernardino. 
Yueaipa. 
given as La Piiente, but evidently Azuza, 

Reid's Asuksa-gna. 
given as a place on the eoa.st near Palos 

Verdes or Cerritos : evidently Reid 's 

Sua-ngna, Suanga. 
San Gabriel ; Akura-gna is given by Reid^" 

for La Presa, and San Gabriel is Siba- 

gna. 
a small lake near San Gabriel. 
Cueamonga; Reid,'° Kukomo-gna. 
Chino; Reid Pasino-gna. 
Jurupa. 

San Jose; Reid Toibi-pet. 
San Jacinto. 



CULTURE. 



As has already been intimated, the strong differences between 
the environments of the various divisions of the Cahnilla and 
other Mission Indians of Southern California are reflected in 
considerable differences of culture. At the same time there 
is an underlying general uniformity of civilization. This is 
clear from the fact that in all matters not under the direct in- 
fluence of physical environment, such as social and religious 
life, the differences between the tribes and dialectic groups are 
very much smaller. As might be expected in a case where the 
diversifying influence is physical nature, the cultural differences 
are more marked on the material than on the immaterial side 
of native life. The implements of the Cahuilla, as they would 



8 Present series, II, 143. Salt is aCor in Gabrielino, eula in Luiseno. 
The locative ending -bit or -pit is Serrano. 

9 ' ' Because of a large river there. ' ' Cahuilla wanic, Serrano wanut., 
stream. 

10 As cited, transcribed, in the present series, II, 142. 



40 University of California Fiiblications in Am. Arch, and Ethn. [Vol.8 

be represented in a niiiseum collection, are therefore particularly 
favorable for illustrating: such cultural differences as exist. But 
even among these there are entire classes of objects which for 
some reason or other are not dependent upon variations of physi- 
cal environment within the comparatively narrow limits of 
Southern California, and are therefore practically identical 
throughout the region. Preeminent among such objects is bas- 
ketry. Food and mode of subsistence were of course most di- 
rectly dependent on environment, and the implements for their 
gathering and preparation varied accordingly. Thus the Ca- 
huilla of the desert use chiefly a deep wooden mortar with a long 
pestle. The people at San Gorgonio pass have shallow mortars 
with basketry rims. The southern Luiseno and Diegueiio use 
stone mortars without the basketry rim but of greater depth. 
Pottery is perhaps the class of objects in regard to which there 
is greatest tribal divergence that cannot be connected with nat- 
ural surroundings. Pottery was made by all the Luiseno-Cahuil- 
la as well as by the Yuman Diegueiio farther south ; it was not 
made by the Gabrielino; while the position of the Serrano is 
doubtful. 

As one comes among the Cahuilla of the desert after some 
acquaintance with such tribes on the coast side of the San Jacinto 
range as the Luiseiio, and with the agricultural Yuman tribes 
on the Colorado, — in other words, the western and the eastern 
neighbors of the Cahuilla, — one cannot but be .strvick by the 
numerous similarities which they present to the latter, of whom 
the Mohave may be taken as typical. In both cases there is a 
similar habitat, a wide semi-desert plain, with mountains in the 
distance. There are houses of similar brush, more or less cov- 
ered with sand. The pottery is identical in material and shape 
and even in ornamentation. Among both tribes the staple food 
furnished by nature is mesquite, which is pounded in similar 
mortars with stone pestles. The mesquite is stored in the same 
large rudely constructed granary baskets. Grain and seeds are 
groiind on the nearly flat metate. The whole appearance of a 
desert Cahuilla house and its contents at the present day are very 
similar to that of a Mohave house. 

But here also we are dealing only with a partial impression. 



1908] Erocber. — Ethnograpluj of the CalutiUa Indians. 41 

After all the differeDces between the Cahuilla and the Mohave 
or Yuma are greater than the correspondences. The Mohave are 
farmers and fishermen. The Cahuilla follow neither pursuit. 
The Mohave are practically without basketry, except for such 
few piece-s as they may trade from their Shoshonean neighbors. 
The Cahuilla use baskets as abundantly as all their Shoshonean 
kinsmen. The Mohave employed a carrying frame of sticks 
and twine, the Cahuilla a carrying net which held a basket. The 
Mohave were warlike and had a developed tribal sense. The Ca- 
huilla resembled the other Indians of California in lacking these 
qualities. They appear also to have been without the totemic 
clan sj'stem of the Mohave. What is known of their ceremonies, 
and of the character of the shaman among them, further points 
to practically complete identity with the other Mission Indians. 
In other words, they are typical Mission Indians, .somewhat 
specialized by their desert habitat, and possibly influenced in 
some respects by contact with the Yuman tribes of the Colorado. 



BASKETEY. 

The basketry of the Mission Indians is well known, and that 
of the Cahuilla has been described in detail. ^^ Considering its 
importance in the life of the people, it is remarkable for the 
small number of weaves, forms, and materials to which it is 
confined. The ordinary materials are not more than three : a 
grass, Epicampes rigens, for the warp ; and for the woof either 
a reed-grass, Juncus robustus (or lesenerii), or sumac, Rhus 
trilobata. The fibre of the palm, Neowashingtonia filamentosa, 
is also sometimes employed today, but its former use is doubt- 
ful. There appears to have been only one dye in common use, 
a black which is produced either from the elder or from a species 
of Sueda. Yellow, red, brown, and even greenish shades are 
ordinarily all obtained by using different portions of the stem of 
the Juncus, which between its root and top passes through sev- 
eral quite different colors. All the ordinary forms of basketry 



11 Barrows, Ethno-botany of the Coahuilla Indians of Southern Cali- 
fornia, 1900, 40; Schumacher, in Putnam, Wheeler Survey, VII, 247. 



42 University of California Publications in Am. Arch, and Ethn. [Vol.8 

are coiled on a multiple foundation of the Ejncampes grass. 
Junciis is occa.sionally substituted. 

Twined weaves are used only in rude openwork baskets, so 
far as known. The Chemehuevi make conical carrying baskets 
(PL 1) and caps, in the diagonal-twined or double-warp weave 
so characteristic of the Shoshoneans of the Plateau. A basket 
made in this way may occasionally be found in the possession of 
the Cahuilla; but they appear not to have practiced the weave 
themselves. 

The Cahuilla openwork baskets (PI. 1) may appropriately be 
described as irregular in technique, rather than as strictly in the 
simple single-warp twined weave. The simplest form of twining 
predominates, but in all specimens examined is more or less in- 
terspersed with double-warp twining and twining on zigzagging 
warp. Two warp strands are frequently treated for awhile as 
a unit ; then they may diverge and each be twined around inde- 
pendently; or, one may be bent to the side, be wound with the 
adjacent warp rod for a course or two, and then return to its 
former neighbor. Sometimes this alternate zig-zag warp twining 
is carried out fairly regularly over a considerable part of the 
basket, but this is unusual. The principal attempt seems to be 
to get the interstices in the basket about equally far part, and 
to accomplish this end warp stems are united, separated, and 
reunited at will. Hence the invariably ragged and rough ap- 
pearance of these baskets. 

Coiled weaving on a definite three-rod foundation of woody 
stems, and similar coiling on single rods, — the two most im- 
portant coiled weaves of northern California, — are not used at 
all by the Cahuilla or other Mission Indians. 

Large granaries for storing mesquite are a conspicuous feat- 
ure of the surroundings of a desert Cahuilla settlement. (PI. 2.) 
They are from three to six feet across, without top or bottom, 
placed on a layer of brush, and covered with the same. They 
are sometimes set on the ground, but more usually raised on a 
rude scaffold of poles. These granaries can be called baskets 
only by courtesy, as they show no distinct weave, slender 
branches being simply intertwined as in a bird's nest. The 
material used in them, given by Dr. Barrows as Artemisia ludovi- 



1908] Kroehcr. — Ethnography of the Cahuilla Indians. 43 

ciana, is similar to the plant used by the Mohave, Pluchea sericea, 
commonly called arrow-weed. Many Mohave and Cahuilla 
granaries are identical; but when a number of each have been 
seen, it becomes apparent that the Cahuilla show more tendency 
to make baskets of smaller diameter and relatively greater height 
narrowing toward the top. The more frequent Mohave form has 
the shape of a cylinder, perhaps twice as great in diameter as 
altitude. Like the desert Cahuilla, the Mohave set their gran- 
aries on a layer of brush on the ground, or on a scaffold. The 
granaries of the mountain Cahuilla, says Dr. Barrows, are usual- 
ly on tall bare rocks. 

The basket mortar, or rather hopper of the stone mortar, 
is still used in many households among the San Gorgonio pass 
Cahuilla, but no specimens were seen in the desert. Stone mor- 
tars are rare in the desert, and it is not certain that they were 
used with the basketry rim. The Banning Cahuilla say that 
they attach the basketry rim to the stone with gum from a bush. 
Asphalt is however the most common material, as numerous re- 
mains from Southern California attest. The mortar basket calls 
for no particular description, being identical with a common 
form of Cahuilla basket except for lacking a bottom. Believing 
that it might be possible that these baskets were made from such 
complete baskets by cutting out the center, the Indians were 
questioned, but stated that this was not the ease, the mortar bas- 
kes being begun around a hoop. This is obviously the easier as 
well as the quicker method of manufacture in coiled basketry. 
Among the Yurok of Northwestern California, whose mortar 
baskets are twined, the basket is begun as if it were to have a 
rude bottom, and only when ready for use is the central portion 
cut out. 

The basketry cap of the Cahuilla (PI. 7), is like that of the 
other Mission Indians, and of a type extending at least as far 
north as the Yokuts of central California. It is rather large, 
flat-topped, and of coiled weave. Its general appearance is that 
of the frustum of a cone, horizontally corrugated. It is not worn 
habitually, as are the basketry caps of northernmost California 
and Oregon, but only in carrying burdens. The load is contained 
in the carrying net, the strap of which passes over the forehead. 



44 Vniversity of California Publications in Am. Arch, and Ethn. [Vol. 8 

It is as a protection against this band that the cap is worn. The 
caps are made perfectly round, so that they do not fit the head 
well. Only one specimen in the Museum collections has been 
flattened, apparently by use, to the oval shape of the head. Most 
of the caps seem unnecessarily large for the head. The pattern 
ornamentation is simple, and sometimes wanting. One or two of 
those obtained show signs of having been used for other purposes, 
such as parching or holding liquids.' - 

The Chemehuevi cap is of a different type, being twined in- 
stead of coiled, somewhat peaked or conical instead of flat-topped, 
and lighter and more flexible than the thick coiled Cahuilla cap. 
One of these Chemehuevi hats, which the owner was unable to 
part with, was ornamented with a red and black design resemb- 
ling a basketry pattern, but painted on. A similar cap, also in 
diagonal-twined weave, was obtained from a Cahuilla family at 
Alamo. (PI. 7, on right.) This piece, however, had the design 
worked into the basketry. This Chemehuevi form of cap is of 
the type found among the Shoshonean tribes of the Great Basin, 
and the piece here mentioned could be practically duplicated by 
Ute specimens. 

While the basketry cap is characteristic of many parts of 
California, it is not found over the whole state. In the 
region in northernmost California in which twined basketry is 
exclusively used, caps are habitually worn by the women, wheth- 
er carrying loads or otherwise engaged, and are apt to be the 
most highly ornamented and carefully made articles of basketry. 
In the northeastern corner of the state, as among the Modoc, 
they have the shape of a truncated cone. In northwestern Cali- 
fornia, among the Yurok and Hupa, they are lower and somewhat 
rounded, but all the better made ones are flat-topped. South of 
this belt across northernmost California, beginning with the 
region in which coiled basketry first appears, and extending to 
beyond the latitude of San Francisco, basketry caps are not 
made. The Pomo, Wintun, and Maidu^'' of the coast and Sacra- 



12 Barrows, p. 44. 

13 Professor Dixon, Bull. Am. Mus. Nat. Hist. XVII, 162, 1905, states 
that the northern Maidu women formerly wore basket hats; but no speci- 
mens have been seen by him or by the author and none appear ever to have 
been collected. 



1908] Kroebcr. — Ethnography of the Cahuilla Indians. 45 

mento valley, and the Miwok and probably other tribes, do not 
use caps. With the Yokuts of the southern San Joaquin val- 
ley, and among the neighboring Shoshoneans such as the IMono, 
the Tiibatulabal, and those of Inyo county, is found the large 
flat-topped coiled cap worn only to protect the head in carrying, 
and this form continues to be met with southward over most 
the remainder of the state. The peaked diagonal-twined Shosh- 
onean cap characteristic of the Great Basin, is distinct from both 
the northern and southern of the California forms, and occurs 
only in the easternmost parts of the state. 

A twined water-basket of jug shape, coated with pitch or 
asphalt, of the type used by the Paiutes and other Shoshoneans, 
and on Santa Barbara Channel, is said to have been made by the 
Cahuilla in former times. ^* Such water-baskets have entirely 
disappeared. In fact there seems some reason to doubt their 
ever having been made by the Cahuilla, who had pottery which 
was fully as suitable and much more readily manufactured. 

A leaching basket is mentioned by Dr. Barrows, but none was 
seen, and no definite description could be obtained. Possibly the 
twined openwork baskets of juneus answered this purpose. 

The seed-beater (PL 3) may appropriately be included under 
the consideration of forms of basketry, although the Cahuilla 
seed-beater, which is nothing but a frame of a few sticks, presents 
but little appearance of basket work. The specimens obtained 
have the sticks wound together with strips of cloth. Either 
strips of bark or string might have been employed for this pur- 
pose in former days. In size and shape the Cahuilla seed-beat- 
ers resemble those used elsewhere in California, but they are 
made of an unusually small number of sticks and are peculiar 
in the parallel arrangement of these along the middle of the en- 
circling hoop. The seed-beater of most California tribes is made 
in circular openwork twining on radiating ribs. 

All the foregoing forms of basketry serve some special or 
limited purpose, and, as has been said, to several of them the 
term basketry can be applied by courtesy rather than in fact. 
If all these special forms are excluded, and consideration is given 

'•< Barrows, 41: called kaputil. The stem of this word appears, with the 
diminutive suflix -mal, in kaput-mal, obtained as the name of ordinary bowl- 
shaped baskets, as given below. 



46 University of California Publications in Am. Arch, and Ethn. [Vol. 8 

to the ordinary types of basketry serving a wider and more gen- 
eral function, it is apparent that the Cahuilla show a limitation 
in the number and variability of forms that is as striking as is 
the confinement of materials to three or four plants. In brief, 
the types of the ordinary baskets of the Cahuilla and other Mis- 
sion Indians are only four. These may be described as the flat 
basket, the shallow basket, the large deep basket, and the small 
globular basket. These are all executed in the same materials, 
weave, and fineness of technique, with similar patterns. The 
constricted or bottle-necked basket of the San Joaquin valley, the 
oval basket found here and there among many tribes, the feather 
or bead-ornamented basket of the Pomo, the conical carrying bas- 
ket of California in general, are all absent. That certain of these 
forms, such as the oval basket, are found at the present day, 
seems to be due to the stimulus of basket buying by the whites, 
as no oval baskets have been seen in use among the Indians. The 
uniformity in size of each of the four classes of baskets that have 
been enumerated is also quite striking. The smallest pieces have 
half or more the diameter of the largest specimens of the same 
class. Among other California tribes baskets of the same shape 
range from a few inches to nearly as many feet. 

The flat basket, or chipatmal (PL 4), is most commonly some- 
thing over a foot in diameter. Its curvature is very slight. It 
is employed as a plate or tray, and for winnowing, and has also 
been described as used to gather the seeds struck down on it by 
the seed-beater. 

The shallow basket (PL 5) is deeper than the preceding, but 
flatter than the large deep basket. It is called sewhalal, accord- 
ing to Dr. Barrows ; or kaputmal, the same as the deep basket. 
It has about the same diameter as the flat basket, is some three 
or four to six or eight iuches deep, and has the form of a shallow 
flaring bowl. The bottom is nearly flat. The sides usually rise 
in a gradually ascending curve, or more rarely meet the bottom at 
a distinct angle. The uses of this form of basket naturally shade 
into those of the flat basket. It is a convenient receptacle for 
food. It is also used for parching corn or seeds. A specimen 
may occasionally be found of which the interior is entirely 
charred. 



1908] Kroeber. — Ethnography of the Cahuilla Indians. 47 

The deep basket (PL 6) is much like the shallow one except 
that its sides rise more steeply and to a greater height. Its 
usual shape is that of an inverted truncated cone, of which the 
altitude is equal to the smaller diameter and about half that of 
the greater diameter. Besides being used to hold food and other 
articles, this flat-bottomed coiled basket is the substitute of the 
Cahuilla and Mission Indians for the pointed twined carrying- 
basket found elsewhere in California. It is not so shaped that 
it can be properly carried on the back merely by means of a strap 
passing around it and over the forehead. With the Cahuilla 
form of basket this .strap becomes part of a net, in which the 
basket rests. In reality it is this net and not the basket that is 
the burden-carrier : the basket is only a secondary receptacle for 
objects that the meshes of the net will not retain. 

The carrying net is not confined to Southern California, but 
it is only there that the shape of the burden basket makes it a 
practical necessity. In central California the net is rather a 
convenience, and the basket is often used without it. 

The small globular basket (PI. 7) is the least common of the 
four types. It serves to keep small utensils and trinkets. The 
diameter is usually somewhat greater than the height. The 
mouth is of the same size as the bottom, or sometimes smaller. 
No attempt is made to form a neck or constriction that will pro- 
duce a lip, or an urn-shaped vessel. Occasionally one of these 
small globular baskets is found with a thong across its mouth by 
which it can be suspended. All baskets of this type that have 
been seen are ornamented ; but the design is like that of other 
shapes, except in more frequently presenting a vertical arrange- 
ment instead of a disposition of the pattern in a horizontal band. 

All the Cahuilla basketry that is made for use is coarsely 
constructed. The wrapping of the woof is never close, and at 
times is very far apart. The baskets are not intended to hold 
water, and it runs through them readily. Upon being thor- 
oughly wetted they are probably more nearly water-tight, but 
it is apparent that the use of pottery renders attention to this 
quality unneces.sary. The same coarsene.ss which characterizes 
the woof extends also to the warp. While the warp material is 
the same as that used by the southern San Joaquin valley tribes. 



48 University of California Publications in Am. Arch, and Ethn. [Vol. 8 

the coils are much thicker. This is equally true of the four 
principal types of baskets and of the caps. Of over fifty pieces 
of ba.sketry in the Museum collection the fine.st has only six coils 
or courses to the inch, the coarsest four. This uniformity is re- 
markable in being maintained in all classes and sizes of baskets. 
In baskets made for sale, where attention is given to appearance, 
finer work is occasionally found. Especially the woof wrapping 
is brought more closely together, giving the impression of neat- 
ness and good work which is so characteristic of most California 
basketry, although wanting from the typical Cahuilla work. The 
size of the warp foundation is less often reduced, but occasionally 
a particularly well made basket is offered for sale, in which the 
coil is no thicker than in an ordinary good Yokuts basket. 

In regard to designs a great difference exists between baskets 
made by the Cahiulla for their own use, and those made for sale 
to the whites. The latter are most always made of stems of 
juncus of varying shades, presenting a mottled appearance. This 
effect is pleasing, and such ba.skets bring the readiest sale. In 
baskets made by the Cahuilla for their own use, this mottling is 
much less pronounced, and the shade of the juncus used is much 
lighter, being whitish rather than olive green over the body of the 
basket. To bring out definite patterns, as distinct from the more 
or less mottled surface of the basket as a whole, the Cahuilla 
use the yellow, red, and brown shades of this juncus as well as its 
black-dyed form. In baskets made for use the pattern is almost 
always quite simple. In those made for sale it is in most cases 
quite elaborate. Figures of men, lizards, snakes, birds, and ani- 
mals are frequently woven in such baskets, and still more fre- 
quent are diversified, branching, or otherwise elaborate figures of 
non-reali.stic import. In their own baskets the Cahuilla rarely 
put more than one or two simple bands or radiating figures. The 
simple stripe; the short bar, vertical or horizontal; the rectangle, 
either standing alone as a bar or combined into a series of steps ; 
triangles, usually in series ; the diamond or hexagon repeated into 
a horizontal band; and the simple zigzag, constitute the great 
majority of patterns. A striking but uncommon desigrn is the 
fret. (PI. 6.) Occasionally a design is in two colors, most often 
black combined with reddish or brownish yellow. At other times 
the two colors occur on different parts of the same basket. 



1908] Kroeber. — lithnography of the Cahuilla Indians. 49 

The prevailing arrangement of the pattern in typical Cahuilla 
baskets made for their own use is a horizontal one, in most eases 
a continuous band encircling the basket. Even where a diagonal, 
vertical, or zigzag pattern arrangement occurs in flat or shallow 
baskets, it usually produces the effect of forming a band, which 
in baskets of this shape is the equivalent of a horizontal arrange- 
ment. In deep baskets there is scarcely an exception to the pre- 
valence of the horizontal band, and in caps it is also usual. Only 
in the small globular basket is the horizontal arrangement lack- 
ing. There seems to be a desire to have the pattern on such bas- 
kets extend from top to bottom. Consequently vertical designs 
are most common on them, and zigzag arrangements of next great- 
est frequency. 

In the prevalence of horizontal patterns, especially of the 
band type, with a secondary tendency towards vertical designs, 
the Cahuilla agree with the other Mission Indians, and in fact 
with the tribes of all that part of California south of the latitude 
of San Francisco.'^ 

The small globular baskets are exceptional in another respect 
than their pattern arrangement. In all flat, shallow, and deep 
baskets, as well as in caps and mortar baskets, the direction of 
the coil, as one looks into the basket, is from left to right, or 
clock-wise ; in all globular baskets it is from right to left. A 
somewhat similar difference has been noticed by Dr. Dixon among 
the Maidu,'" except that among these Indians flat baskets run 
from right to left. Mr. S. A. Barrett has noted that among the 
Pomo the coil is always clockwise, whatever the shape of the 
basket. These .striking differences, which evidently are typical 
of tribes, and the reasou for which is unknown, have led to an 
examination of all the coiled basketry from California in the Uni- 
versity Museum, with the following results. In all cases, wheth- 
er the basket is used with bottom down or with bottom up, and 
whether the pattern is on the inside or on the outside, the direc- 
tion of the coil is observed as the hollow of the basket is looked 
into. 

The coiled baskets of the Wailaki and of the Yuki all run 



15 Present series, II, 150, 190.5. 

16 The Northern Maidu, Bull. Am. Mus. Nat. Hist., XVII, 146, 1905. 



50 Vniversity of California Fuhlications in Am. Arch, and Ethn. [Vol.8 

anti-clockwise. Those of the Porno run clockwise. Among the 
Maidu the direction is clockwise, except that flat baskets run anti- 
clockwise. Among the Miwok, where a large series of baskets was 
examined, the same arrangement was found as among the Maidu. 
Among the Washo, the baskets examined, which were all bowl- 
shaped, showed a clockwise coil. Among the Yokuts the coil in 
flat baskets is clockwise; in the so-called "bottle necks," forms 
showing a distinct shoulder and constricted neck, always anti- 
clockwise ; and in bowl-shaped baskets, variable, though in the 
majority of eases clockwise. Among the Mono and other Shosh- 
oneans of central California the direction is clockwise, except 
again in the case of bottle-necks. Among the Mission Indians, 
Luisefio and Dieguefio as well as Cahuilla, the direction is clock- 
wise except in the small globular baskets. Among the Cheme- 
huevi flat and bowl-shaped baskets usually run clockwise, though 
a number of exceptions have been observed. The Chemehuevi 
also make urn-shaped baskets approximating bottle-necks, but 
the direction of the coil in these is not known."* 

It thus appears that other than among the Wailaki and Yuki 
the normal direction of the coil in California basketiy is clock- 
wise, except that in three groups of tribes certain classes of 
baskets, and those only, also run anti-clockwise. Among the 
Maidu and Miwok it is the flat baskets that are exceptional, 
among the Yokuts and Mono the bottle-necks, among the Mi.ssion 
Indians the globular baskets. The differences in shape between 
the baskets that are thus made an exception of, render it difficult 
to conceive a technological reason for the turning of the coil in 
the unusual direction. It can be imagined that it might be easier 
to make a basket with constricted mouth by working in one way 
than in the other, and that the Maidu and Miwok choice of the 
unusual direction for their flat baskets was due to their holding 
such baskets inverted during the process of manufacture; but 



loa Since this paper was put in type, Dr. C. V. Hartman, Curator of 
Ethnology and Archaeology in the Carnegie Museum,' Pittsburg, writes as 
follows regarding a collection of Chemehuevi baskets in that museum: "Of 
the flat baskets, ten have the coils clockwise, ten anti-clockwise. Of the 
more or less cylindrical baskets, five have the coils clockwise, fifteen anti- 
clockwise. Mr. C. P. Wileomb has verified the observation." It thus ap- 
pears that the Chemehuevi follow no consistent rule, but that the prevailing 
tendencies among them are the same as the rule of the Yokuts and Mono. 



1908] Eroeber. — Ethnography of the Cahuilla Indians. 51 

such guesses are in greater need of verification by observation 
than of further discussion. It is not unlikely that the selection 
which governs the direction of the coil among different tribes is 
dependent primarily on custom or tribal habit. 

The prevailing clockwise tendency in California seems to be 
replaced by the opposite one elsewhere in North America. In 
the great majority of Southwestern ba.skets the coil is anti-clock- 
wise. This is true of all the ancient baskets examined and of 
most of those made by Indians of the present day. Among the 
tribes of Washington and the Alaskan Eskimo the anti-clockwise 
direction also prevails. 

STONE IMPLEMENTS. 

Of next greatest abundance after basketry, among the Indians 
of the present day, are articles of stone, especially the metate 
and the mortar, and the corresponding mano or muller and pes- 
tle. These are still in frequent use. The metate is nothing but 
a flat stone, oval or somewhat rectangular in shape. It is made 
of granitic or metamorphic rock, not of a sandstone slab. It is 
very slightly hollowed. Some pieces show hollowing only in 
that part of their area which is actually rubbed in use. Occa- 
sionally a large lava metate on three legs, of the familiar Mexican 
type, is seen. These are always declared to have been obtained 
from Mexicans. A considerable number of such pieces must 
have been brought into California from Mexico. One has been 
obtained among the Yokuts north of Fresno river, and a frag- 
ment from the Emeryville Shellmound near Berkeley is in the 
University collections. It is curious that these heavy implements 
of the stone age should have been brought over a thousand miles 
by a civilized people in colonizing a new territory. 

The rubber or mull stone is of nuich more varied shape than 
the metate. Sometimes it is oval in outline, thin and flat. Other 
pieces of the same length are narrower and twice as thick. Still 
others are much longer, of equal breadth and thickness, and well 
squared, so that they present the shape of a short length of 
dressed timber. Still others are natural shaped stones or bould- 
ers, the bottom of which has been rubbed flat. 



52 University of California Publications in Am. Arch, and Ethn. [Vol.8 

The mortar shows more variations than the metate. Tlie deep 
wooden mortar of the desert, and the stone mortar with basketry 
rim of San Gorgonio pass, have been mentioned. The wooden 
mortar is specially adapted for the mcsquite bean. It is made 
from a section of tree two feet or more long. The greater part 
of this log is sunk in the ground. The projecting portion pre- 
sents the appearance of being a stump cut from a tree in situ. 
The mortar hole is quite deep, in some cases as much as a foot or 
more. A correspondingly long pestle is necessitated. This is 
about two feet in length, fairly well shaped, and quite slender. 
A similar wooden mesquite mortar is used by the Mohave, though 
block, cavity, and pestle are shorter than among the Cahuilla. 

The stone mortar with basketry rim (PL 15) is used in the 
region where mesquite is unimportant or wanting. The block 
or boulder of stone is large compared with the size of the rather 
shallow cavity. The pestle used with this mortar (PI. 8, left) is 
naturally much shorter than the pestle accompanying the deep 
mortar of the desert (PI. 8, right). It is also much more rudely 
shaped. In most eases it appears to be only a convenient cobble 
or boulder, one end of which has been dressed to fit the surface 
of the mortar cavity. 

This rude type of pestle, practically unshaped except at the 
pounding end, or sometimes flattened on one side, is found also 
in the Sierra Nevada and perhaps in other parts of the state. 
Among the Yokuts and Miwok this is the only form of pestle 
for ordinary purposes. Cylindrieally shaped pestles occur only 
in small sizes, for use with small portable stone mortars for 
crushing tobacco, inedieine, or meat. Associated with the rough 
pestle among the Yokuts and Miwok, is the bedrock mortar, con- 
sisting of a hole in an exposed surface of granite. Most fre- 
quently a number of these holes, varying in depth, are found 
close together. Such assemblages, which have been a number of 
times described and illustrated,^' are a conspicuous feature of 
past and present native life in the Sierra region. The basket 
mortar is unknown among these tribes, but is used by all the 



17 Holmes, Anthropological Studies in California, Rep. U. S. Nat. Mus. 
for 1900, 178, pi. 29, and Handbook of American Indians, Bull. 30 Bur. Am. 
Ethn., I, 944. 



1908] Kroeber. — Ethnography of the Cahuilla Indians. 53 

Indians of the Coast Range north of San Francisco — both those 
of the Central t,ype of culture, such as the Pomo, and those of 
northwestern California. The basket mortar is used also in the 
northeastern part of the state. It is also found in the Chumash 
or Santa Barbara region, both mainland and island, as is evi- 
denced by numerous stone mortars and slabs showing remains of 
asphalt at the rim and by an occasional piece preserved with the 
basketry still attached. In this region, however, the bowl-shaped 
mortar without basketry rim appears to have been used side by 
side with the composite form, for many of the mortars found are 
of such irreg-ular shape at the top that a basket could never have 
been fastened to them. The basket set on a slab or shallow mor- 
tar, and the bedrock mortar, divide almost the whole of Cali- 
fornia between them, at least as regards the Indians of historic 
times and the present. This fact brings up the qviestion of the 
origin and purpose of the portable stone mortars which are found 
in all sizes, in and on the ground, in all parts of the state. The 
Indians not only do not use these, but on being questioned fre- 
quently declare that they would not know how to, as the manip- 
ulations required in pounding acorns or seeds in these mortars 
would be quite different from those employed in the basket-rim 
or bedrock mortar. It can only be concluded that the ordinary 
bowl-shaped mortar found in such abundance all over California, 
belongs to a former period, and has in recent generations or 
centuries been generally replaced by the other forms described. 
The only region in California where the author has seen round 
or somewhat deep stone mortars in use is in San Diego county, 
where they are occasionally met with among the half-civilized 
Luiseno and Diegueno. 

Next to the metate and muller, and mortar and pestle, the 
stone implement today most frequently encountered among the 
Cahuilla, though it is but little used, is the arrow-straightener. 
This consists of a rectangular or oval block of stone somewhat 
raised toward the middle, where a transverse groove divides its 
upper surface. It is in this groove that the arrow is placed to 
be straightened. The inner surface of the groove often shows 
high polish. Some arrow-straighteners show a low longitudinal 
ridge extending at right angles from one or both sides of the 



54 University of California Publications in Am. Arch, and Ethn. [Vol.8 

groove. According to the explanation obtained from an old man 
who still used his straighteners, this ridge serves to bend cane 
arrows at their joints, the joint being placed directly npon the 
ridge after the stone has been heated. Other stones show this 
longitudinal ridge only in rudimentary form, so low that it is 
doubtful whether it could have served any actual use. In still 
other pieces the ridge has entirely disappeared except for two 
narrow grooves or scratches that mark its place and can have had 
little other purpose than ornamentation or the following of cus- 
tom. Occasionally also other scratched designs appear in the 
place of the ridge. The stone from which the arrow straightener 
is made is soft, usually soapstone or micaceous rock. Granite or 
similar stone does not appear to be used. The Cahuilla form of 
arrow-straightener is found among the other Mission Indians and 
among the Yokuts of central California. Like the rude pestle, 
the technique of basketry, and the carrying net with its com- 
panion the cap, it is therefore another link in the chain of 
technological similarities of culture between the San Joaquin 
valley and Southern California. 

POTTERY. 

Of next greatest frequency after basketry and stone imple- 
ments among the Cahuilla of today, are objects of pottery, though 
they are seldom if ever manufactured now. Native pottery is of 
interest in California because until a few years aeo it was be- 
lieved not to occur. Its distribution is restricted. It is of great- 
est importance among the Yumnn tribes living on the Colorado, 
who are without basketry of their own. It is made also by the 
Diegueilo and by the interrelated Luisefio, Agua Caliente, and 
Cahuilla Indians. The Gabrielino and the tribes beyond, such 
as the Chuma.sh. did not make pottery. No undoubted pieces 
have been found in the numerous archaeological explorations 
of the Santa Barbara islands. Whether the Serrano had pottery, 
and if so which of their divisions, is unknown. It was made to 
some extent by the Chemehuevi and probably other closely re- 
lated Paiute tribes in the part of California bordering on the 
Mohave habitat and on southernmost Nevada. As compared 
with the pottery-making Mohave, these Paiute-Chemehuevi tribes 



1908] Kroeber. — Ethnography of the Cahuilla Indians. 55 

are basket makers; but under Mohave influence they seem also 
to have practiced the manufacture of pottery somewhat. Sev- 
eral vessels obtained from the Chemehuevi at Twenty-nine Palms 
and Cabezon are in the University collections. North of Tehach- 
api pottery has been found in only one region, the southern 
Sierra Nevada, where both Yokuts and Mono made it to some 
extent. This pottery is small, dark gray or browni.sh, unpainted 
and unornamented, and quite rude. Whether the art is a re- 
cently accjuired one among these Indians is not known. No 
archaeological investigations that might throw evidence on the 
question have been carried on in this mountain region, nor does 
the nature of the country offer any great temptations for so do- 
ing. This Yokuts and Mono pottery is quite different from that 
of Southern California in appearance and shapes. It appears 
to be used for little but cooking. The Yokuts and Mono seem to 
have lacked the ability of constructing large well-made vessels 
such as are found in Southern California, or not to have felt the 
need of making them. Whether the principal pottery-making 
area in the southern part of the state was connected with the 
subsidiary one in the Sierra Nevada by an intervening area in 
which pottery was used, is doubtful. If thei-e was such a ter- 
ritorial connection, it must have been by tribes of Ute-Chemehue- 
vi affiliation or of Serrano affinity. 

All the pottery of Southern California is of one type. It is 
a light, thin, rather brittle red ware. On the Colorado river it is 
almost always ornamented, among the basket making tribes more 
often unornamented. The painting is in only one color, a red 
somewhat darker than the surface. Among the Mohave this col- 
or is produced by painting the unfired pot with yellow ochre, 
which burns red. Among the Cahuilla a red stone, apparently 
an oxide of iron, was said to be used for the same purpose. 

Only three ornamented pieces of pottery were seen among the 
Cahuilla. One of these was a broken discarded dish, another 
a jar in the po.ssession of the Chemehuevi at Cabezon, and the 
third, a black-painted jar which will be described below. The 
designs on the two red-painted pieces are identical with typical 
Mohave painting. Mohave pottery designs consist most fre- 
quently of patterns of parallel lines, either straight, zigzag, or 



56 University of California Publications in Am. Arch, and Ethn. [Vol.8 

forking; of rhombi or crossed or branching lines with or without 
adjacent dots ; and of angles and triangles with the corners filled 
in. Realistic drawings, round lines, or separate geometrical 
figures of any elaborateness, are not attempted. There is very- 
little resemblance to any past or present pottery of the Pueblo 
region. 

The black-painted jar from San Gorgonio pass (PI. 10) is 
unique not only in the color of its ornamentation, but in its pat- 
tern, which differs thoroughly from designs of the Mohave type. 
It is more finely executed with narrow lines, the ornamental 
handling of which is reminiscent of the ancient Pueblo style. The 
star shape of the pattern suggests the basket ornamentation of 
the Cahuilla. 

Like the pottery of the Mohave, that of the Cahuilla was made 
by coiling together narrow cylinders or ropes of clay, which were 
then patted between a smooth rounded stone and a wooden pad- 
dle. The degree to which the art is now in abeyance may be 
judged from the fact that 'neither of these implements was seen. 
As Dr. Barrows has noticed, the vessel is not kept away from the 
fire in burning, so that it is often blackened in spots. The same 
is true of Mohave and Luiseno pottery. In recent times the Ca- 
huilla have used dung for firing their pottery. Before the intro- 
duction of domestic animals they employed the wood of certain 
shrubs. Among the Mohave the making and baking of pottery, 
which takes place before an open wood fire, may still be seen. 

There are four principal forms of Cahuilla pottery : a small- 
mouthed jar for water and perhaps for the storage of seeds; a 
somewhat wider-mouthed jar ; a cooking pot, of which the mouth 
is approximately of the same diameter as the body of the vessel ; 
and an open bowl or dish of perhaps half as great a depth as 
diameter. (PI. 9, upper figures and lower left.) These forms 
are made with comparatively little variation except in size, and 
are identical with Mohave types, even to the binding of the bowl 
or dish with a strip of mesquite fibre just below the rim to in- 
sure greater strength. The only divergent forms that have been 
seen are a vessel with incurved mouth (PL 9, lower right), thus 
being intermediate in form between the open dish and the jar; 
and one or two small i-oughly-made dishes of a dull dark red 



1908] Krocber. — Ethnography of the Cahuilla Indians. 57 

color with a flat bottom. Of these one was obtained at Banning, 
the other from one of the Indio reservations. It is not certain 
that either of these two forms represents anything more than a 
sporadic aberrance. 

To judge from a smaller number of specimens that have been 
seen, the pottery of the Luiseno and Diegueno is identical with 
that of the Cahuilla. While the forms of vessels made by all 
these Mission tribes are found also among the Mohave, the Mo- 
have manufacture other types which do not occur among the 
Mission Indians, at least at the present day. Such are an asym- 
metrical small-mouthed jar having the shape of a swimming duck 
and called "duck jar;" a pottery spoon; and flat round or oval 
dishes nearly as shallow as one of our plates, though of a gently 
flaring curvature. 

As compared with the practical identity of the Colorado river 
and the Llission region pottery in all other respects, the almost 
regular absence of painting from the Mission ware, and its cus- 
tomary presence on Mohave vessels, is of special significance. 
It is another instance of the want of the symbolic and pictorial 
tendency that is so strangely undeveloped among all California 
Indians. 

As pottery is more important to the Yuman tribes of the 
Colorado river than to the Cahuilla and coast Indians, and as 
these latter are basket makers, it may be presumed that its use 
was earlier among the former, as their closer proximity to the 
Southwestern culture-area would also render probable. 

IMPLEMENTS OF WOOD AND FIBRE. 

A bow and two or three arrows will frequently be found in a 
Cahuilla house. They are used for small game. As Dr. Barrows 
has said, the bow is apt to be shown with an apology and an ex- 
planation of the superior qualities of those made by the fore- 
fathers. Both bow and arrow are of the same type as those of 
the Mohave. The bow is usually of willow. The University col- 
lections however contain one made of harder wood, perhaps mes- 
quite, and another made from the stem of a palm leaf. Accord- 
ing to Dr. Barrows the bows of former days, at any rate the bet- 



58 University of California FxiMicaiions in Am. Arch, and Ethn. [Vol. 8 

ter ones, were made of mesquite.^' At the present day bows are 
all foiir to four and a half feet long, an inch and an eighth or an 
inch and a quarter wide, and three-quarters to seven-eighths of 
an inch in greatest thickness. The better made ones are roughly- 
squared in cross section. Others are more rounded, and some of 
these are still covered with red willow-bark on the back or out- 
side. One specimen is nothing but the split half of a willow 
stick. No sinew backing has been found. There is very little 
taper in either width or thickness from the middle of the bow to 
the ends. This comparatively long, narrow, and thick unbacked 
bow, most frequently made of willow, corresponds exactly with 
the Mohave bow. The string is still occasionally made of mescal 
fibre or sinew, but more modern substitutes, including iron wire, 
are common. 

The arrows are of two types, being made either of a straight 
shaft of wood sharpened at the end, or of cane with a wooden 
foreshaft. The wooden arrow is typical of the Mohave, while the 
cane arrow is attributed by them to the neighboring Chemehue- 
vi and Paiute of Shoshonean stock. At the present day the wood- 
en arrow seems more frequent among the Cahuilla. Being used 
only for small game, neither form has a stone or metal point. It 
is not unlikely that such may have been the custom also in old 
days, even in the case of arrows intended for war. The Mohave 
state that stone arrow-points were not regularly used by them, 
and that their ordinary war arrow was the simple sharpened 
shaft of wood. They appear to regard the stone arrow-point as 
typical of their Shoshonean neighbors. 

The Cahuilla wooden arrow is said by Dr. Barrows to be made 
from wormwood, Artemisia ludoviciana. This is similar to the 
plant used by the Mohave, Pluchea sericea. The arrow is about 
three feet long. One end is sharpened, the other notched and 
feathered. All the arrows seen had only two feathers. This 
may be due to their being intended only for small game. The 
Mohave used a two-feather arrow for similar inferior purposes, 
but a three-feathered one for war. The feathering on the Ca- 
huilla arrows is applied as follows : a feather is split down the 
quill; each half is then laid against opposite sides of the shaft 



18 Barrows, 49. 



1908] Kroeber. — Ethnography of the Cahuilla Indians. 59 

and the ends fastened down by a sinew wrapping. Each half- 
feather is not in line with the shaft but is given a quarter twist 
around it. 

The cane arrow is similarly notched and feathered. It con- 
sists of three or four joints of cane three-eighths or half an inch 
in diameter. At the front end a piece of wood is let into the 
hollow cane, which is then wrapped about with sinew. This piece 
of wood, which tapers to a point, projects from the cane some 
six or eight inches. In a set with two arrows of this type ob- 
tained at Banning is a third one, similarly made but with a shaft 
of unjointed rush replacing the jointed cane. The cane arrow is 
usually somewhat longer than the wooden one. 

The digging stick of the Cahuilla calls for no special comment, 
being as elsewhere merely a sharpened stick of hard wood. A 
specimen obtained is four feet long and an inch and a half in 
diameter. 

The Cahuilla flute, like that of all the Indians of California, 
is of the entirely open variety. It consists of a piece of cane a 
foot and a half long which can be looked through like a pipe. 
The mouth end is ground or otherwise brought to an edge at an 
angle of about forty-five degrees. There are four stops or holes 
of small size. "Whether consciously or unconsciously, these are 
grouped into two pairs, the distance between the pairs, that is to 
say, between the two middle holes, being somewhat greater than 
between the two holes in each pair. Of two flutes in the Univer- 
sity collections both show this grouping of the stops. The dis- 
tance between the stops varies from somewhat less than two to 
somewhat more than two and a half inches. The distances are 
not exactly equal, and yet not sufficiently varied to give any ap- 
pearance of design. It is not probable that they are constructed 
with any clear idea of the dependence of tone intervals upon the 
distance between them, but merely by eye or by some convenient 
rule of thumb. When played, the flute is held against the mouth 
at somewhat of an angle, not taken between the lips. The sound 
is produced by the column of air from the mouth striking the 
sharpened upper edge. The melodies have a peculiarly fascinat- 
ing character. They are .sweet and plaintive, though the tone 
intervals are likely to be arbitrary. 



60 University of California Puhlications in Am. Arch, and Ethn. [Vol. 8 

So far as is at present known, the straight open flute is the 
only one known in any part of aboriginal California. Only 
among the Mohave of the Colorado river does a flageolet appear 
in addition. 

A curved throwing stick used for rabbits and birds, and a war 
club of potato-masher form, are mentioned by Dr. Barrows as 
having been used by the Cahuilla."* Like the pottery, they are 
of ethnographical interest in having been made both by the 
Indians of Southern California and those of the Pueblo region. 

The carrying net (PL 11) is an important Cahuilla imple- 
ment, still employed occasionally, and making it possible for 
the Cahuilla to dispense with the deep conical burden basket 
found in most other parts of California, as in the carrying net a 
shallower basket can be conveniently transported. The net is 
made of string with meshes four to five inches square. Among 
the DiegTieiio and Luiseno the carrying net is smaller, the string 
slenderer, and the meshes finer. The general shape of the net 
is that of a small broad hammock. At the two ends the net 
is gathered on a ring or loop of heavier cord or rope. These 
loops are six or eight inches in diameter. One of these rope rings 
has a loose end several feet long. This is passed through the 
other loop to join the net, much like a saddle cinch between its 
two rings. In this way the size of the net can be increased or 
diminished. The wide portion of the net, which is behind the 
back, contains the basket or object carried. The rope passes over 
the basketry cap worn by the carrier. In the desert the net seems 
all to be made of mescal-leaf fibre. In San Gorgonio pass a 
softer glossy material is employed, a string made from "wish," 
given by Dr. Barrows as the common reed, Phragmites com- 
munis.'" 

Sandals of mescal fibre are still used, especially on the des- 
ert. (PL 10.) They are said to be worn principally by men 
when out-doors at night. These sandals consist of a half-inch 
pad of mescal fibres held to the foot with strips of the same fibre, 
or by thongs. They serve as an eflicient protection against 



18 Barrows, 50. 

-0 Barrows, 47. According to the late Mr. Sparkman, the Luiseno called 
Indian hemp, Apooynum cannabinwn, by the dialectically equivalent name 
wieha. 



1908] Kroeber. — Ethnography of the Cahuilla Indians. 61 

thorns. The manner of construction is not quite clear. It would 
appear that the fibres are bent around a cord which follows the 
outline of the foot, and are in some way joined or fastened along 
the middle of the sandal. There is no distinct weave or textile 
process. Among six or eight different forms of sandal in the 
University collections from cliff dwellings in southern Utah and 
Colorado (PL 12), there is none resembling this Cahuilla form. 
All these cliff-dweller sandals are made by some method of bas- 
ketry or cord weaving. The strings which hold the Cahuilla 
sandal to the foot are not tied each time the sandal is worn, but 
are so arranged that the foot can be slipped into them. The 
strings in front pass on the two sides of the second toe, or of the 
second and third toes. The general arrangement is shown in the 
illustration. 

A similar sandal, but of rawhide instead of mescal fibre, was 
obtained from the Chemehuevi at Cabezon. A loop of string at 
the back of this sandal serves as a heel strap. At the front there 
are two cords. These are passed on the two sides of the second 
toe. They are then crossed, brought backward, and passed under 

fii the heel strap, brought forward again, and tied over the instep. 

vf A third form of footwear consists of a high moccasin of soft 

skin without ornament. A pair of such moccasins was secured 
from the Cahuilla at Cabezon. 

The familiar California soaproot-fibre brush used for clean- 
ing baskets of meal, and also as a comb, is not a Cahuilla imple- 
ment. Dr. Barrows mentions brushes of mescal fibre.-' The 
Serrano at San Manuel use the soaproot brush, but the Luiseno, 
Diegueno, and Mohave agree with the Cahuilla in making their 
brushes of other materials than this." The only other tribes in 
California known not to use a form of soaproot brush, are the 
Pomo and southern Wintun, who employ anise-root fibres for 
this purpose. ^^ 

CEREMONIAL OBJECTS AND BEADS. 

The ceremonial implements of the Cahuilla have practically 
disappeared. A few simple feather-ornaments worn by the medi- 

21 Barrows, 47, 54. 

22 According to specimens in the University museum. 

23 According to specimens in the University museum. 



62 University of California Fublications in Am. Arch, and Ethn. [Vol. 8 

cine men in dancing can still be seen. More elaborate objects 
must have been used in former times. The present-day orna- 
ments consist of owl or hawk feathers. These are usually 
mounted in bunches or tufts on sticks so as to stand upright. 
Occasionally, however, they are pendant bunches, hanging from 
a stick. They come in sets of threes. A bunch is worn on each 
side of the head, supported by a band passing around the fore- 
head, and the third is carried in the dancer's hand. 

The principal dancing regalia of the Luiseno seem to have 
been a short skirt or apron of eagle or condor feathers hanging 
from a network of string, and long flat bands of feathers. The 
latter resemble the familiar forehead-bands of yellowhammer 
quills sewed side by side, which are so typical of central Cali- 
fornia. The Luiseiio bands are however mostly made of dark or 
black quills, and are wider and longer. It is not unlikely that 
the Cahuilla formerly had such ornaments. 

A gourd rattle obtained among the desert Cahuilla is identical 
with Mohave gourd rattles except for being unpainted, like a 
Chemehuevi rattle in the University Museum, whereas Mohave 
rattles are usually red. If the Cahuilla of aboriginal times used 
such rattles they must have obtained them by trade, as they did 
not practice agriculture or raise gourds. That there was such 
trade with the region to the east is probable from what Dr. 
Barrows says of the established trail through the Chemehuevi 
country, and also from the fact that a Cahuilla declared to the 
author that the red paint used by his people came from Arizona. 
The Mohave obtained their red paint, or the best of it, from the 
Walapai to the east. 

It does not seem that any of the Cahuilla still possess shell 
beads. These were of the thin curved type made from Olivella 
or other univalve shells. Beads of this form are found in great 
quantities in burials in the Santa Barbara region, where they 
appear to have been the most common form of currency. They 
differ fi-om the thick, flat, disk-like, larger beads made from 
clams or similar shells, which are typical of Central California. 
A number of the thin Olivella beads, calcined black, have been 
found near the old Cahuilla village site at Indian Wells. They 
had apparently been burned with the dead or for them. These 



1908] Kroeber. — Ethnography of the Cahuilla Indians. 63 

beads were well rounded. A string of similar beads, now in the 
University collections, is from the Luiseno of San Jacinto. The 
wear on these beads shows them to possess some age, but they 
have been rudely chopped into shape and never ground round. 
Strung beads were measured in a certain way around the circum- 
ference of the hand. This practice is found among the Luiseiio, 
the Yokuts, probably the Gabrielino, Serrano, and Chumash, and 
perhaps among other tribes. 

The accompanying plate 13 shows a number of shell disk 
beads from various parts of California. In the upper left-hand 
corner are the Luiseno beads mentioned. It will be seen that 
the outline is much less regular than in any of the other speci- 
mens. To the right are similar beads from Santa Catalina 
island and from Point Sal in Santa Barbara county. The 
second row of figures shows beads from Santa Rosa island. Of 
these the first three groups are of the same concave type as 
the preceding. The fifth group is made of thin pieces of haliotis. 
The third row on the plate shows beads from shellmounds 
about San Francisco bay. The first three, which are from bu- 
rials in the Emeryville shellmound, are of the concave Southern 
California type. The square beads are from the West Berkeley 
mound and are unusual. They are not made from univalves, 
but apparently from mussel or haliotis. The lowest row on the 
plate shows beads of the thick Central California type, appar- 
ently all made from clams. The first, to the left, is from the 
Porno Indians. The second has passed through fire and was 
excavated in Napa county. The third is from a prehistoi-ic site 
near Stockton, and the last, in the lower right-hand corner of the 
plate, from the modern Maidu Indians. The difference between 
the typical forms of Southern and Central California is obvious, 
but it appears that at least some of the prehistoric inhabitants 
of the shellmounds on San Francisco bay used the southern form 
of bead. 

HOUSES. 

The houses of the desert Cahuilla remain very much as de- 
scribed by Dr. Barrows.'* Their appearance and construction 

2* Barrows, 35. 



64 University of California Publications in Am. Arch, and Ethn. [Vol. 8 

is shown in plate 14. These houses bear some resemblance to the 
houses of the Colorado river tribes, especially in the upright 
forked posts supporting the roof beams, and in the character of 
the thatching. They differ, however, in being but slightly or 
partially covered with sand or earth. In fact many houses are 
without any covering other than the brush thatching. In the 
Mohave house the sides are quite low, and both sides and roof 
are pretty thoroughly covered with a layer of sticks. The out- 
side layer of brush serves the purpose rather of preventing the 
thick covering of sand from shifting through the spaces between 
the wooden framework, than of being a covering in itself. The 
Cahuilla house is distinctively an airy brush-house, the Mohave 
structure a heavy close earth-house. The Mohave and Cahuilla 
resemble each other much more closely in the character and use 
of their shades or ramadas and wind-breaks, which are usually 
constructed in front of the entrance to the house. 

At the Banning reservation a sweathouse is still in use (PI. 
15). From the outside its appearance is that of a small mound. 
The ground has been excavated to the depth of a foot or a foot 
and a half, over a space of about twelve by seven or eight feet. 
In the center of this area two heavy posts are set up three or four 
feet apart. These are connected at the top by a log laid in their 
forlcs. Upon this log, and in the two forks, are laid some fifty 
or more logs and sticks of various dimensions, their ends sloping 
down to the edge of the excavation. It is probable that brush 
covers these timbers. The whole is thoroughly covered with 
earth. There is no smoke hole. The entrance is on one of the 
long sides, directly facing the space between the two center posts 
and only a few feet from them. The fireplace is between the 
entrance and the posts. It is just possible to stand upright in 
the center of the house. This building was said by the old man 
who owned it to be used only for sweating. Its size, which would 
prevent any considerable gathering for ceremonial purposes or 
dances, corroborates his statement. Throughout Southern Cali- 
fornia, as well as the southern portion of the central region of 
the state, the use of the sweathouse was confined strictly to this 
purpose, ceremonies being held either under a simple shade or in 
a brush enclosure. In most of northern California the so-called 



1908] Kroeber. — Ethnography of the Cahuilla Indians. 65 

sweathouse is of larger dimensions and was preeminently a cere- 
monial or assembly chamber. 

SOCIAL AND RELIGIOUS LIFE. 

Practically no information is available as to the social and 
religions life of the Cahuilla, but the information obtained in 
answer to a few inquiries goes to show their close affiliation with 
the other Mission tribes rather than with the agricultural Yuman 
tribes to the east. There is no evidence of any totemic clan 
system as among the Mohave. The chief or "captain" seems 
to be such principally through the possession of property. He 
is always regarded as the riche-st individual in the community. 
At ceremonies and gatherings he supplies food for the assem- 
blage. This dependence of social rank on wealth is a typically 
Californian trait. The Luiseiio follow the same practice. The 
Mohave chieftainship, so far as not influenced by hereditary 
succession, is dependent on valor. 

The mythical origin of the Cahuilla is said to have been in 
the north, in which account they agree with the Luiseiio. The 
large low-flying meteor, dakush, is distinguished from ordinary 
shooting stars, ngamngam, and is said to live in San Jacinto 
mountain, a belief which agrees with those of both Luiseno and 
Diegueitio. The eagle "is the general of the Indians," volun- 
teered a Cahuilla, by which no doubt he meant to express a 
mythological and ceremonial importance of the bird parallel to 
that which it has among other tribes of Southern California. 

The most important ceremony of the Cahuilla seems to have 
been the annual tribal mourning gathering, hemnukuwin. This 
was in addition to singing immediately after a death. Jimson- 
weed or toloache, kiksawal, which plays so important a part in 
the initiation ceremonies of the Luiseno, Yokuts, and other tribes, 
was customarily used for religious purposes. It was not learned 
definitely that it was expected to be drunk by every boy or young 
man of the tribe, but such seems to have been the case. It was 
thought that the objects or events seen in the visions caused by 
the drink would come true. It was especially believed that the 
use of the jimson-wecd would bring riches, no doubt in connection 
with the general idea that it conferred power and the attainment 



66 University of California Publications in Am. Arch, and Ethn. [Vol. 8 

of desire. It was also used as a medicine, especially in case of 
broken bones. The Yokuts also employed it extensively for this 
purpose. It appears to have been efficacious in such cases by 
rendering the sufferer unconscious or insensible of pain for a 
number of days, in which time the healing took place. It is said 
by the Cahuilla that the amount of extract of the root that is 
drunk must be judged by a man experienced in its use, and that 
a number of deaths have resulted from the taking of excessive 
quantities. 

The position of the medicine man or hechicero among the 
Cahuilla apparently corresponds very nearly to that of the 
medicine-man among the other Mission tribes and the Yokuts. 
This is especially brought out by the fact that he is the principal 
person who dances. The Mohave medicine-man acts as important 
a part as his colleague in these tribes, but as a causer and curer 
of disease, and not as the initiator of public ceremonies. 

The ceremonial drinking of jimson-weed is known as pem- 
pa-wvan kiksawal. A girls' puberty ceremony, the "roasting 
of girls" of the Mission tribes, seems to have been practiced. It 
was called pem-iwvlu-niwom. 

Altogether, as one compares the ciilture of the Cahuilla with 
that of other tribes of California, it is seen that the several 
striking resemblances that they bear to the Mohave and Yuma 
are due to proximity, or to the similarity of the two natural 
environments. In so far as these causes are not operative, the 
Cahuilla partake of the culture common to the tribes of the 
coast and inland of Southern California, in other words, the 
Mission Indians. Many resemblances with the Yokuts are also 
noticeable. These are of course not confined to the Cahuilla, but 
are common to all the Mission Indians. Such similarities are 
not restricted to the material side of life, but are conspicuous 
in the general social and religious organization. On the side of 
mythology, however, the Yokuts resemble the northern Califor- 
nians, and the Mission Indians the tribes of the Southwest."' 
The physical type of the Yokuts, or at least their southern tribes, 
has also been shown to be nearly identical with that of the 



25 Present series, IV, 167, 1907; Journ. Am. Folk-Lore, XIX, 309, 1906. 



1908] Kroeber. — Ethnography of the Cahuilla Indians. 67 

Mission Indians,^^ though the possible historical significance of 
this resemblance is weakened by the similarity of both typos to 
the Mohave- Yuma physical form. All in all, the Yokuts form 
part of the great Central culture group of California, and the 
Cahuilla belong to the ethnographic province of Southern Cali- 
fornia, just as their respective habitats form part of distinct 
physiographic areas. The instances of resemblances between the 
two groups are however so numerous, that it is evident that there 
must have been considerable cultural interinfluence between the 
■whole body of Southern California tribes on one side of the 
Tehachapi mountains, and the Indians of Central California on 
the other side. 



May 14, 1907. 



26 Boas, Proc. Am. Ass. Adv. Science, XLIV, 261, 1896. 



68 



University of California Fuhlications in Am. Arch, and Ethn. [Vol. 8 



CATALOGUE NUMBERS OF SPECIMENS SHOWN IN PLATES. 



In all plates the specimens are given in order from left to right, and then 
downward. Unless prefixed by 2-, the numerator 1 is understood. 

10956, 11083, 11125. 

11098, 11121, 11093. 

11103, 11113, 11052, 10988, 11051, 11027. 

10976, 11047, 11065, 10975, 11034, 10977. 

11063, 11008, 10986, 11066, 11104, 11089. 

11079, 11111, 11042, 11130, 11105, 11007, 11057, 11067. 

11107, 10979. 

10985, 10990, 10992, 11040, 11091. 

11095, 10991, 11067. 

10997. 

2-3628, 2-3624, 2-3604, 2-3611,2-3612, 2-3586,2-3600, 2-3563. 

11129, 8462, 1291, 6708, 6394, 6522, 6314, 6311, 8788, 8773, 
8798, 7496, 2689, 6971, 3362f, 7462. 



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UNIV. CAL. PUBl. AM. ARCH. & ETHN, VOL. 8 



[KROEBER] PLATE I 




CHF.MKIirKVI CARRYING BASKET. 
CAHUILLA OPEN-WORK BASKET. LUISENO OPEN-IVORK BASKET. 



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[KROEBER] PLATE 5 




SHALLOW BASKETS. 



UNIV. CAL. PUBL. AM. ARCH. &. ETHN. VOL. 8 [KROEBER] PLATE 6 








DEEP BASKET.S. 



UNIV CAL. PUBL. AM ARCH, k ETHN. VOL. 8 [KROEBER] PLATE 8 




PESTLES PROM SAX (iOMiONIO PASS AND THE DESERT. 



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BASKET MORTAK AXD .SWEAT HOUSE. 



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LB S '08 



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